No Place Like Home!

Well, we've arrived home from furlough safe and sound! Hurrah! It's so good to be home! I love exclamation points!!! ;^)

We cut our visit in Tucson short by a couple of days when we received a note from our pastor (who was watching our house for us) which sounded a bit...stressed. A lot happened while we were gone and, while I wouldn't presume to say the village fell apart without us, I think that Ricardo and Cristina were relieved to see us again.

All the animals are present and accounted for. That was quite a relief for Seth. This marks the first time that an iguana has survived a furlough. Thank you, Lord!!! Jessee's duck has confirmed our suspicion that he is a she. She began laying eggs while we were gone. Guess where -- inside the brick oven.

On a more serious note, two members of our church passsed away the week before we arrived home. Juben, husband of Sister Victoria, had battled prostate cancer for several years. During the past couple of months, he began to take eternity more seriously and spent many hours studying the Bible and praying with Doug and other brothers of the church. He was baptized about a month ago -- only a few weeks before he went to be with Jesus.

That's just the way life is, I suppose. As one of my friends said last night, death is our only certainty in this life. We need to be prepared for it.

The last leg of our trip was uneventful -- no blown tires, no overheating wheelbearings, only a small issue with the brakes, but my extremely mechanically gifted husband handled it with ease. On the way south, we passed through a town called Guaymas (pronounced GWHY-mas) which had been hit by hurricane Jimena. Once again we praised God for His protection from this storm. The flood waters which rushed down from the mountains wiped out two overpasses and made Interstate 15 impassable. We had to take the "scenic route" through the city.

I'd never traveled through Guaymas during the day. Very pretty city -- at least, it was before it was hit by Jimena. Workers were busily patching roads and working to repair the railroad which was wiped out by the ocean surge. Most of the homes we saw had fared pretty well, but the storm damage was evident in the broken trees and debris piled here and there. All traffic from Interstate 15 was being diverted through the heart of this sleepy little town, so the detour was a bit time-consuming.

We had a chance to meet Braulio and his family in Obregon, Sonora. His wife, Pily, was having a surgery to remove some polyps (sp?) in her sinuses and the doctors had bumped the date up unexpectedly. We really wanted to be able to see them and to encourage them. The timing was perfect and we were able to meet for dinner (a late dinner, but still...).

We pulled into our driveway at 3:30 a.m. on Tuesday. Once again we managed to stretch a 12 hour trip into 18 hours. We were tired, but happy to be home. I'll do a photo re-cap of our time in the States soon. Until then, que Dios les bendiga!!!